While I am not a customer of Bayou Cables, general business sense tells one that due to the economy the way it is, Butch has spent all the advance payments he has received for his living expenses and/or he was using prepaid money to fund his operations and when the prepaid money dropped significantly he got caught in a cash crunch and therefore is not able to provide any refunds.
Since he has not notified his prepaid customers that their orders will be delayed for several months and/or limited communications with them, IMO, he's basically ruining his business reputation that he worked so hard to achieve (based on other TB threads and recommendations).
Since each parties loss is small, IMO, he's hoping that he'll be able to get your cable made before the complaints start to pile up or he's not concerned with your loss very much since he's struggling to pay his own bills. Even then, will he have the cash to ship your cable out when it gets made?
Still, even if he makes standard cables and starts selling them before fulfilling his custom orders, how long will it be before all the ripped off custom order people start complaining en masse? So, why order BC's standard cables when he has unfulfilled custom orders and unrefunded prepaid $$?
Since Bayou Cables is well known for quality work, here's hoping that Butch will be able to turn things around.
As far as the prepaid customers unfilled orders go, you'll, hopefully, get your cable, eventually, but if you need one now, best to order from somewhere else or as suggested above, make you own.